The second sea day out of Moorea we crossed the equator and King Neptune had to bless all the polywogs (those crew and guests that had never crossed the equator before).  At the completion of the ceremony you are a shellback and have Neptune’s permission to cross his boundaries without ceremony in the future.  John and I were initiated on the Holland American Rotterdam in 2009 when we did the World Cruise so we did not have to participate again.  Of course, it is voluntary anyway – except for new crewmembers who must go.  It was a fun thing to watch.

Annointed with a raw egg.

With some added flour to make it messy.  We arrived in Honolulu on April 29 after four lovely, quiet, lazy days at sea.  We have been to Honolulu several times and all we did was walk around some of the city streets near the terminal. The ship stayed in Honolulu overnight because the next day,  April 29,  was the last day of the 17-day cruise from Sydney, Australia to Hawai’i.

If there is a fire truck nearby one must check it out.  Well, someone must check it out.  Me, not so much. The iconic Aloha Tower at the harbour.

We said goodbye to our tablemates that evening and they caught flights back to Australia the next day.The majority of the guests disembarked the morning of the 30th and then all the cabins were cleaned and the ship was re-stocked for the arrival of the guests taking the 13-day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands to Seattle, WA and on to Vancouver, BC.

It was Easter Sunday the day we were in Moorea and despite it being a semi-overcast day we enjoyed it very much. We spent the morning on the water looking for spinner dolphins.  The marine biologist who led the tour knows all 150 of the local area dolphins on sight and has a 95% success rate locating them.  We were in the 5% category.  Despite almost going all the way around the island we did not see a single dolphin. We did see some fabulous scenery.  Dr. Poole, the marine biologist, said that Michener was wrong when he said that Bora Bora is the most beautiful island in the world.  “Bora Bora has the most beautiful lagoon,” Dr. Poole said, “But Moorea is the most beautiful island.”  And it was lovely; with knife-edge peaks jutting up all over and thick vegetation covering every inch.  Not to mention the glorious colours of the lagoon.  Really spectacular scenery.-

After our tour was over we wandered around the pier markets for a little while – the nearest town was a distance away from our tender berth. After dinner we attended the inter-denominational Easter service led by a Catholic priest.  He asked John plus four of the children in attendance and the Captain (who was from Owen Sound, ON) to do the readings.  The cruise director plus some other members of the senior staff were there as well.  It was a short service but we really appreciated the opportunity to worship on the special day. The captain never directs the ship into a harbour or port.  There are harbour pilots that come out to the ship on a small boat and literally hop aboard the moving vessel to sail the ship in. The process is reversed when the ship sails out as well.  The pilot will direct the ship until it  has cleared the harbour then the pilot boat will come along the cruise ship and the pilot will hop from one vessel to the other and head back to shore.   They get very good at jumping from one moving object to the other.    We set sail for Honolulu which was four sea days away.  The ship would be in Honolulu for two days as the last day of the 17-day cruise from Sydney, Australia included a day in Honolulu.  The next day the 17-day cruise guests disembarked and the 13-day cruise guests that were going around the Hawai’ian islands then to Seattle and Vancouver embarked.  We just stayed put. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset on the Lord’s day of resurrection.

Tahiti was another of the islands that we had visited on our cruise over to Australia and neither of us were hugely enamoured on that day – the artwork of Paul Gauguin notwithstanding.  On this cruise we did a tour that took us inland; from sea level to 4800′ and back again and had a really good day, so we came away with a more favourable opinion of Tahiti; which is the largest of the Polynesian islands. This beautiful yacht was berthed right beside the Rhapsody.

We were picked up by our driver, Allan, and taken through Papeeté to the end of a steep valley in the middle of an ancient caldera.  We crossed a river a couple of times, and saw many waterfalls; some had a sheer drop of over 1300 m.  Allan would stop the truck along the way and tell us about the plants or climate or other interesting things.  He was also very good about giving us photostops. It was still the ‘wet’ season but we were blessed with a rain-free day.  There were two other couples in our truck; a couple from Germany and one from Australia.  The ride was too rough for the German lady and she got car sick as soon as we went off-road.  It must have been a very long afternoon for her.  We, fortunately, were fine.   We almost got John positioned right to catch the waterfall in his hat. We arrived back at the ship at five and enjoyed a Tahitian Folkloric show in the theater after dinner.

We had a second April 18 when we crossed the International Date Line between Lautoka and Raiatea so we had three full sea days before arriving in the first of four ports-of-call in French Polynesia.

April 19 was Tropical Night on board.At Raiatea, after the ship entered the reef the captain had to almost encircle the island to get to the port so we had a lovely slow sail and we spent the time on Deck 5 taking photos of the beautiful water. The two tours we were interested at Raiatea were fully booked so we had no tour.  Raiatea is only 99 miles around and you can do it by taxi in about 3 hours.  We considered making the trip with our table-mates Bill and Carol but we all felt disinclined to be crowded into a small vehicle with no AC for that long.

Instead we waited until the masses had left the ship then  walked into town. We walked the length of the main street and then back along the coast. Checked out a few shops, but, as usual didn’t buy anything.  It was a lovely, warm day and we enjoyed taking an easy stroll. The ship remained docked until 6 am then slowly sailed the 55 km over to Bora Bora, one of my very favourite South Pacific islands.

Our first three days out of Sydney were all lazy sea days.  On sea days we walk the deck, read, and visit with folks we meet around the ship.

The 15th of April was a formal night and as Gold members of the Crown and Anchor Club, we were invited to a Meet and Greet with the captain before dinner.  We docked at Lautoka, Fiji at 9:30 am and set off to a Fire-Walking Cultural Show at the Westin Hotel.  Fiji is comprised of 33 islands with 333 provinces and over 300 dialects.  It is the largest producer of sugar in the world and has the largest sugar mill in the world.  The brown sugar is sent to New Zealand to be made white.  They also export mahogany.Lautoka is the second largest city after Suva, the capital, which is on the other side of the same island.  When we were there in 2011 they had 27% unemployment.  The minimum wage was $2.50 per hour ($1. US = $1.75 FJ) and the average wage was $4.50.  Homes and lots were VERY expensive – $750,000 AUS for a house and $320,000 AUS for land.  Even an apartment was over $300,000 AUS.

There was quite a bit of preparation and turning of the rocks so I think they were not as hot as we were made to believe by the time the men walked across them. Still, the rocks were steaming and I certainly wouldn’t do it.  There was definitely a knack to it.  The dances were very good as well.  It was a good afternoon. There are several places in the Fiji Islands that do demonstrations of fire walking on the hot stones, but only one tribe of the Fijian people can do it. The most popular drink is Fiji is kava.  It is made from the fruit of the Kava tree and it numbs your tongue and causes you to relax and  go to sleep.  Fiji rum is 58% alcohol and they make a popular local beer.  We were served snacks during the show and had an hour to wander the resort.              There was a  beautiful pool and access to a lovely beach. The bus picked us up and we were driven to the largest Hindu Temple in the Southern Hemisphere. A circuitous route took us back to the ship in time to get ready for dinner.  The cruise ships provide live entertainment in the theater every evening.  Most evenings we go; if we don’t we will read or walk the deck before bed.  During the night of Monday, April 18 we crossed the International Date Line so when we woke up on Tuesday, it was April 18 again. We had three more days at sea before our next port-of-call Raiatea, French Polynesia on April 21.

We were on the road by 9:30 am; driving from Surfer’s Paradise up to Brisbane for our 2:15 pm flight to Sydney.  We returned our last rental car, and checked in for our flight only to find it was delayed until 3.  Whiling away time in airports is not my favourite thing, but, unfortunately in these times; it is a fact of life.   The plane was further delayed another half hour so it was to 3:30 before we took off.  We arrived in Sydney at 5 and got on the hotel shuttle for a ride to the Travelodge.  It ended up being a two hour tour of Sydney as our hotel was the last one on the circuit.

We checked into the hotel at 7.  Considering the only thing we had to do that day was take a one and half hour flight from Brissie to Sydney it had turned into a long day.  We were also too late to go to the storage place and collect the luggage we had placed there on Feb. 23.

After we had the $25 per person buffet breakfast in the morning we walked over to the Dymocks Building on George Street and got our two large suitcases.  We had arranged for a late check-out (12 noon) so we took our bags back to the hotel and did a bit of re-shuffling to reduce the number of pieces of luggage we would have to handle.   By this time it was about 10:30 so we took a walk down to The Rocks and Circular Quay to see where we had to go to board our ship later that afternoon.

     There were nice black and white murals on the tunnel walls. When we booked the first leg of the Holland America  2011 Grand World Voyage to take us from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Sydney, Australia (45 days) there was included in our fare $3500 for our return flights to Vancouver.  However, the reason we took a cruise ship to Australia was to avoid the 16 hours stuck in an airplane.

After I had made a rough calculation of the time frame for our Sydney to Sydney travels in Australia John Googled the Sydney Harbour website to see what ships would be leaving about the time we were due back in the city and where they were going.  He found a Royal Caribbean 17-day cruise from Sydney through the South Pacific to Honolulu, Hawai’i.  That is okay, we thought, it is only 5-6 hours from Hawai’i to Vancouver.  We have done that several times.  But, thinks John, the ship will not be stopping in Honolulu. Where was it going from there?  Another Google search of the ship’s itineray revealed that it’s next trip was a 13-day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, to Seattle to Vancouver.  The cost of those two back-to-back cruises for the two of us was $7200.  Just over double the airfare for 30 days on a cruise ship instead of 16 hours in an airplane.  It took us exactly 10 seconds to make that decision!

My dad always sailed Royal Caribbean for his holidays and we had been on a couple of trips with him.  The ship that was taking us home from Sydney was the Rhapsody of the Seas; the same ship we were on when dad had taken all of his family on an Alaskan cruise in 2000.  As a matter of fact the Rhapsody’s sailing schedule was due to the fact it was re-positioning from a winter schedule in the South Pacific to a summer schedule doing Alaskan cruises out of Seattle and/or Vancouver.

Back at the hotel we checked out at noon, loaded all our bags into a taxi that took us to the pier and we boarded the Rhapsody.

We had some lunch and re-familiarized ourselves with the ship’s layout before finding our cabin.  The ship was over two hours late setting sail due to re-fueling, and, by then we had already had dinner and met our new table-mates; two nice Australian couples doing the 17-day Sydney to Hawai’i cruise. So, here we are again.  On another cruise ship sailing for a month to get home.  We have been to some the ports-of-call before, but there are stops at a few new islands to visit before the ship gets to Hawai’i.

We had booked an airplane flight over the Great Barrier Reef but we woke to wind and rain.  It had not let up by the time we dressed and had breakfast so we called the tour company to cancel.  The lady at the Tourist Info Center where we had booked the flight told us to bring in our credit card for a re-imbursemetn and when we arrived she told us that the flight company had told her that they would have cancelled the flight themselves anyway.  So much for seeing the reef.  Rats!

Despite the rainy day we decided to drive north out of Cairns to Port Douglas.  The weather wasn’t too bad on the drive up but by the time we had stopped at Flagstaff Lookout and had taken a few photos of Four-Mile Beach the sky opened again and after having some lunch we drove back to Cairns in pouring rain.  By this time, I admit we were getting pretty tired of the rain.  But, it is the wet season, so it was expected – not appreciated; but expected.Thus, the afternoon was spent in our hotel room re-packing luggage for our next day flight to Brisbane and reading, banking, and, as always, sorting and uploading photos.

Our flight to Brisbane left Cairns at 1:50 pm.  We spent most of the morning in the airport because we had to check out of our hotel by 10:30.  The rental car was returned with very few miles added to the odometer.  The window seat on our flight offered some nice views. We arrived in Brisbane at 3, picked up a car and drove the one and a half hours to our hotel seven miles from Surfer’s Paradise.  We were spending our last week in Australia at the famous resort area.  The week, like our week on Phillip Island, was a time-share exchange.  Surfer’s Paradise is a seaside resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast in eastern Australia. It is like the American Honolulu, Miami, or LA.  People from all over the country go there for their holidays to enjoy the beautiful beach, warm ocean weather, and the many theme parks and attractions.Our first day was pretty much a down day. We bought some groceries for breakfast and lunches, and purchased passes to Seaworld, Warner Bros. and Wet n’ Wild, as well as the dinner show Outback Australia Spectacular for the upcoming Tuesday night. Day 2 was spent at Sea World.  We went to three shows and had just finished watching the dolphin show when it began to rain again.  We were going to go on some rides, but the cool, wet weather changed our minds. The famous Surfer’s Paradise beach.  It is over 40 miles long.  Too cool for visitors that day though.

Day 3 (Apr 9) was another down day.  This whole week was planned to be quite lazy.  We had been on the go, more or less, since January with only the odd day to laze. We had decided that we would rest somewhat on our last full week in Australia.  The only thing accomplished this day was mall wandering and grocery shopping and reading.The view from our balcony at the Radisson Gold Coast.  On Day 4 we had planned to go to Warner Bros. but, instead, spent the entire day in our room relaxing and reading. We didn’t even go out for one meal.  Finally, on Day 5 we ventured out once more and spent the day at Warner Bros. Movieland Theme Park.  Our dinner show reservation for the Outback Spectacular is located at Warner Bros. so we were glad to get the directions sorted.

We saw several of their shows. Some of them, like the Wild West one, were very lame.  Batman wasn’t a lot better.  The Stunt Driver show, however, was pretty good.  Very similar to the one at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.   One cannot go to a big theme park without going on some rides. We thought the Superman roller coaster seemed fun, but the line was very long, and so we decided to look further.  There wasn’t too much of a line at the Lethal Weapon ride so we joined the queue.  What we did not realize was that the people were entering from the back of the building due to some repair work being done on the front.  The line was long, it was just all inside the building.  We decided to stick it out and while we inched forward we heard regular announcements about not going if you are pregnant or suffer from heart conditions and such.  The one that had me a bit concerned was the announcement that you must remove all objects from your pockets, even if the have Velcro closures, take off any sandals or flip flops, and hats and leave all your belongings in bins before getting on-board.  Why, we asked ourselves, were we here?

It took about half an hour to reach the ride which lasted exactly 70 seconds!  (I know.  I counted.) You hit speeds of 80 kmph (50 mph), encounter 4G forward and reverse force and turn completely upside down five times within two corkscrews.  We were wobbling so bad we could hardly walk when we go off.  We were nauseous and had a headache as well.  But it was a really fun 70 seconds!   And, once again, it began to rain and since we still were suffering the affects of Lethal Weapon we called it a day and went back to our hotel.

The next day was our last day and we spent it lazily at the resort, only venturing out to go to the Outback dinner theater.  No photos allowed but it was a great show, lots of equestrian riding and Aussie stories; and a good dinner – one of the best we had in the country; so we definitely ended our Australian Adventure on a high note.  Our flight from Brisbane to Sydney was scheduled for 2:15 the next day.

The taxi picked us up at 5:15am to get us to the airport for our flight to Cairns.  We had to do some luggage re-packing when we found out we were only allowed one checked bag each on domestic flights.  The lady as the counter was very nice and helped us lower our weight allowance by stuffing stuff in our carry-on bags. (I have never understood what the difference is whether the weight is in your checked bags or your carry-on bags.  It is all on the plane anyway.) We were still a bit overweight but she let it slide.  We arrived in Cairns on time under cloudy skies.  We picked up our rental car and found our hotel.  It was early but our room was ready anyway. We had been told by our friends Harold and Martha that March/April was the wet season in Darwin and Cairns.  It was certainly wet in Darwin and the Top End. Cairns followed the trend as well. We were there four nights and we had clouds and/or rain every day.

We found the Visitor’s Center and booked a flight over the Great Barrier Reef and the Railroad/Sky Tram trip over the mountains to Karunda.  We drove north to Yorkey Bay and watched the kite surfers for awhile before returning to town and our hotel.  The early morning and bad night made for a lazy day and after fighting the free wi-fi in the lobby (internet in your room was $11.00 per hour!) with no success, it was also an early-to-bed night.

The next day was a down-day.  The lobby wi-fi worked at last so we did computer work, checked and sent emails, and uploaded photos to Photobucket for the folks at home to see.  We went for a short walk to locate the train station for our tour the next day and bought  breakfast and lunch food in the large shopping mall at the station. After dinner that evening we walked through a couple of the blocks of the Night Market and along the Esplanade before going bed.  We had to be up early the next day for our train trip. We were at the train station at 7:45 and boarded a restored 1880s rail car for our trip to Karunda.  There were only a dozen or so people in our car so we all had plenty of room.  The railway line was literally hacked from the cliff-sides of intensely thick rainforest to make a route to the gold fields during the wet season.  The land route Bump Track was impassable in the wet.  (The Bump Track was originally an Aboriginal trail between the coast and the mountains.  It was blazed by Europeans in 1877 too access the north Queensland gold fields.)

It took two years for surveyors to find a route for the railway and 18 months to complete the first 19 kilometers of track.  The second 25.5 km section took 6 YEARS and accounted for about 23 deaths and a £300,000 budget ( a LOT of money in 1887).  The government refused to spend any more money so private investors were found and 23 years later the third section was finished – in 1910.

It started to rain when we were part-way up the mountain pass but it was still a very scenic trip.  There are 15 tunnels (cut by hand with pick and shovel after an explosive charge lossened the rock) on the 75 kilometer line , 93 curves – some of them 80°, and more than a dozen bridges over very deep ravines. It was an engineering marvel of its day and would be a major project even today with our better equipment and technology.  The line starts at 5.5m (18′) above sea level and climbs to 327.1m (1073′) The bridge at Stoney Creek Falls.  Completed in the mid-1890’s, it stands on three trestle piers with a tight four chain radius. When the day is clear there is a spectacular view of the Coral Sea and Cairns after exiting Tunnel 14.  On a really good day you can see Green Island on the horizon. We couldn’t even see the horizon.Barron Falls were really flowing.  It has a drop of 265 m (870′).

We arrived in Karunda just before 11 am.  We had four hours before the SkyRail back to the town of Freshwater and a shuttle back to our hotel.  (Freshwater was so named because it was the first place that freshwater could be obtained by the railway construction teams.) After we walked around for a little while we visited the Butterfly Sanctuary (partly because it was indoors so we wouldn’t get any wetter).  They have over 1500 free-flying butterflies.  They maintain all their own butterlfy stock with an extensive breeding program.  You could also tour the lab with all the jars full of cocoons or caterpillars munching their particular favourite variety of leaves; all of which are grown by the sanctuary.                                           This butterfly liked my straw hat. We took a slow meandering walk around town before heading to the tram station.  The rain stopped for the majority of our ride over the rainforest canopy but the sky remained overcast.  The SkyRail is about 6.5 km long and goes from Karunda up to the summit of Red Peak before dropping down to the Caravonica Terminal at Freshwater. The cars run on a line 200′ above the forest and the distant views of Cairns (pronounced Cans) and the ocean were very nice despite the clouds.  There are 25 towers and #6 was the tallest at 120′.   You can get off the tram at two stations and wander around before getting on another tram and continuing your journey.  The first was Barron Falls Station where we strolled the rainforest walkways to three lookouts over Barron Gorge and Falls. Barron Gorge hydro-electric power station.  Built between 1932-35 it was carved out of the rock within the mountain on the northern bank of Barron River Gorge. It generates 60 megawatts of energy to the Queensland power grid.

At the Red Peak Station there is a long boardwalk which meanders through the tropical undergrowth past roots, tree ferns and climbing wait-a-while palms.  There are rangers available to answer questions or pass along information.

From Red Peak it is a straight run down the mountainside to the station where a shuttle is available to take you back to Cairns. Back in Cairns we walked up to Kewarra Beach, which isn’t far from our hotel and then went to a pizza place for dinner before going to our room for the night.  It would have been nice, on such a scenic tour, to have sunshine but nevertheless, it was a lovely day.

We were glad to hear, the night before, that the cyclone warning for Darwin had been lifted.  By the time we finished breakfast there were patches of sunlight breaking up the clouds.  We returned our rental car to the airport and took a cab back to town.  Darwin has an Historic Walking Tour so, in the absence of rain, we set off to check it out.  Although it was a nice easy walk the humidity was so high that the normally warm temperature felt very, very hot.

We walked through the park along the Esplanade to the War Memorial. Parliament House and Government House were next.

                                   I love the kangaroos on the coat of arms.

The old police station and courthouse from 1884 have been restored after sustaining damage during Cyclone Tracy in 1974.  The cyclone leveled 95% of the buildings in Darwin.  This church was an interesting juxtaposition of the old brick colonial style and a modern glass/concrete style. Brown’s Mart was built in 1885 during the gold boom.  It was once a mining exchange and is now home to an intimate theatre.Across the street from Brown’s Mart are the ruins of the old town hall.  The original limestone block council chambers, built in 1883, became a naval workshop during WWII.  It later became a bank and then a museum before being destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. The building below belongs to a Pearl Company.  Pearl harvesting is a big business in Darwin.  They even have a Pearling Museum.Second only to my fascination of the Australian Outback, is the Flying Doctor Service.  There was a TV show (in black and white) way back in the olden days of my childhood.  I loved that show.  Every episode was about a medical emergency in a far-flung sheep station or small community in the middle of nowhere.  I was hoping to be able to go to a museum or center but it is located in Alice Springs and we had not had a ‘tourist’ day there.  We just flew in for the start of the camping trip and flew out again when it was done.  Error on my part. The service began in 1939, based in Alice Springs.  All of Australia is now served by the The Royal Flying Doctor Service so the waiting room is 7.13 million square miles.  The service is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organizations in the world. Using the latest in aviation, medical and communications technology, they deliver extensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to those who live, work and travel throughout Australia.

We did a bit of shopping for some camera stuff we needed, had dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, spent the early evening reading and sorting photos and were not late going to bed as we had to be up at 4:30 am to get to the airport for our flight to Cairns.

We had plans to visit Katherine Gorge National Park with its string of 13 gorges, but the inclement weather thwarted that idea.  Most of the roads and trails to the gorges were closed due to flooding and the path to the lookout was so steep and slippery we decided to negate the risk of injury by not climbing to the top.We decided instead to visit Edith Falls which turned out to be a very short little waterfall.   After visiting the waterfall we drove to Springvale Homestead.  Back in the late 1800s, early 1900s Springvale was a large sheep and cattle ranch.  However they were located so far from the southern markets and shipping routes that the place was never finanically viable.  It is now just a few old buildings in a popular campsite.                        There were lots of wallabees to watch.

The next day we headed back to Darwin, a distance of 317 km (196 miles). The signs on the back of the truck say, “Think twice before overtaking” and “Your passengers, their lives, your choice.”  The road trains are very long and there is rarely enough clear road to give sufficient time to get safely by them.

At Lichfield National Park we wanted to see the rock formations called “The Lost City” but the 4WD road was impassable.  We were able to wander among all the gigantic termite mounds.  Termites eat more grass than all the rest of the animals in Australia put together. It was lightly raining while we were at Lichfield but worsened as the day progressed.  We don’t melt in the rain though so we just carried on to Florence Falls and Tolem Falls.By the time we arrived at Tableland Swamp and Wangi Falls it was pouring so hard we got wet even beneath our plastic ponchos.  Our pant legs and shoes were saturated by the time we walked the 200 meters to the Wangi Falls.  There was so much water coming over the crest that it bounced off the walls as it fell and the mist drifted 100 meters across the pool.  The whole picnic area was flooded and all of the usual warnings were posted to stay back from the water’s edge due to the possibility of crocodile attack. The rest of the way to Darwin was driven through monsoon rain.  The windshield wipers on full were unable to move any of the water.  We could see them moving quiclky back and forth but the glass was never clear, even for an instant.  The Top End was under a cyclone alert and the area around Darwin was really getting pounded with rain.  Thankfully all that happened was the rain, there was no serious damage from high winds. The warning was lifted the next day.